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Notes
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A man is depicted crouching to sharpen a knife on a whetstone, looking up and has a cloth over his left shoulder. This is a reduced version of the famous antique marble in the Uffizi, the knife-sharpener known as 'Arrotino' or the 'Rotatore', which supposedly represents a Scythian slave preparing the knife for Apollo's flaying of Marsyas. Group sculpture was popular in Hellenistic times, and the Arrotino was part of a group encapsulating all the drama beloved of Hellenistic sculptors — the flaying of Marsyas. Arrotino, the scythian slave is preparing to flay Marsyas, ordered by Apollo after the god had defeated him in a musical contest, this story can be found in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' (6. 350–400). According to the myth, Marsyas was to be punished by being skinned alive.
Title
Arrotino
Medium
bronze
Measurements
H 36.8 x W (?) x D (?) cm
Accession number
EU0648
Acquisition method
bequeathed as part of a collection to the University, 1836
Work type
Sculpture
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